Vortrag

The extraordinary and tragic story of 267 Congolese brought to the Brussels World's Fair in 1897, a four-month journey to Belgium to be exhibited before a million visitors. The crushing gaze of the "Whites" and the cold; for many, disease and death for some... The dead, hastily thrown into a mass grave, triggered a huge controversy in Belgian society. A disproportionate but necessary project in the eyes of the first colonisers who claimed to domesticate the distant savages... One hundred years later, Congolese compatriots return to the place of memory and question the "Whites" of today about the incredible history of this "human zoo". They perform the ritual of "returning to the land" as a way of repairing a wound that is too deep... The film revives a century of stereotypical perceptions of Africans. The question is almost haunting: "What has changed today?".

Until 6 March 2022, the AfricaMuseum is hosting the exhibition Human Zoo. The age of colonial exhibitions. Several European countries are conducting a debate on colonisation and decolonisation. In response to the Black Lives Matter protests, Belgium set up a Parliamentary Commission 'colonial past' in 2020, also known as the 'Congo Commission'. A year later, a group of ten experts published a first report.

What are the most important conclusions of the experts' report? How can former colonial powers develop a reparations policy? What role should African countries and the diaspora play in the search for historical truths and reparations?

On Wednesday 19 January 2022, writer David Van Reybrouck (Congo. Een geschiedenis) holds a discussion with Nanette Snoep (director of the Rautenstrauch-Joest-Museum in Germany), historian Gillian Mathys (Ghent University) and art historian Anne Wetsi Mpoma (Wetsi Art Gallery). Mathys and Wetsi are members of the expert group of the Parliamentary Commission in Belgium.

Until 6 March 2022, the AfricaMuseum is hosting the exhibition Human Zoo. The age of colonial exhibitions. The exhibition pays special attention to the link between colonialism and racism. The display of Africans in human zoos was a racist phenomenon that also took place in various Belgian cities. But what about contemporary racism in Belgium? Why is a political action plan against racism important? And how can citizens support the anti-racism movement?

On Wednesday 2 February 2022, the museum organises a discussion with diversity consultant Omar Ba, European project officer Amina Odofin (LEVL) and Priscilla Keuppens (youth advisor at the Flemish Youth Council). The evening starts with an introduction by author Naima Charkaoui about racism, wounds and resilience. Moderator is Salomé Ysebaert (AfricaMuseum).

On Saturday 29 January 2022 Naima Charkaoui will be signing her book 'Racisme: over wonden en veerkracht'/'Racisme: une histoire de blessures et de résilience' in the museum.

Until 6 March 2022, the AfricaMuseum hosts the exhibition Human Zoo. The age of colonial exhibitions. During the Belgian colonial period, millions of Congolese were victims of violence. In Belgium, Congolese were exhibited in human zoos. At least fourteen of these Congolese died in Antwerp (1894) and Tervuren (1897).

On Wednesday 12 January 2022 at 7.30 p.m., doctoral student Baudouin Mena Sebu (University of Antwerp) will enter into discussion with historian Maarten Couttenier (AfricaMuseum, Congo tentoongesteld), Georgine Dibua (Bakushinta) and Brussels MP Kalvin Soiresse (Ecolo).

The following questions are central: what do we know today about the (fatal) victims of colonisation? How do governments and museums play a role in the commemoration? What initiatives are the African diaspora taking?

Exhibition Centre d‘Art Waza, Lubumbashi, July 2019
©COLBY
photo © Daniela Waldburger

Their (work)life is characterized by the experience of a severe economic decline that feeds an immense nostalgia. “C’était bien à l’époque!” is an often heard sentence and it serves as a starting point to talk about:

• linguistic strategies to cope with the loss of income that radically changed ex-workers’ perceptions of life and 
• their master narrative as a strategy of their fight for compensation after they lost their employment in 2003.

How did the project’s idea come about? Which research questions and methods accompanied the project? What can we learn from this research project? And why is this project important also regarding the relationship between Belgium and the DRC?

About the speaker

Daniela Waldburger is Senior Lecturer (Swahili, Linguistics) at the Department of African Studies at the University of Vienna. From 2017- 2020 she was also a post-doctoral researcher in a project funded by the Austrian Science Fund. Her current book project bases on the data from this project related research stays in Lubumbashi (DR Congo) and focuses on the nostalgia of the ex-mineworkers.

Her other research foci include sociolinguistics, discourse analysis and generally questions on language and power (mis)use, Swahili language and literatures, Swahili varieties and approaches of more including research methods.

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Muzungu Tribes by Burundian photojournalist Teddy Mazina is an exploratory mission using photography, a reflection on colonial iconography and its codes, classifications, and rankings of people and bodies. Muzungu Tribes takes shape in a laboratory where the artist seeks to invert our perspectives, to question colonial imagery and the racist stereotypes it has produced.

Roméo Mivekannin lives and works between France and Benin. For the exhibition, the artist uses a painting to revisit a photograph taken in 1930 and which shows Congolese soldiers paying homage to the seven men, also Congolese, brought to Belgium to be presented in a human zoo during the 1897 international exhibition. With his work Homage aux 7, Mivekannin interrogates the observation and classification tools that are, respectively, the human zoo and photography as a medium.